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Friday, July 15, 2011

Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello announced on a conference call this morning that the team has signed 2011 first-round pick Adam Larsson to a three-year, entry-level contract.

The deal includes no performance bonus package, but carries the entry-level maximum NHL salary, including the signing bonus and any games-played bonus, of $925,000 per season. That will be Larsson's salary cap hit if he is on the NHL roster.

The AHL salary on the two-way deal is the entry-level maximun of $70,000 per season.

Lamoriello said the plan is is for Larsson to play in North America -- either in the NHL or the AHL -- in 2011-12.

"If that's the best thing for his development," Lamoriello said. "If we thought that something else was, then we'd do that, but it is our inention and it's his intention to be in North America."

Lamoriello made a point of giving Larsson credit for accepting a deal without any performance bonuses to be a Devil and fit in with all the other players in the organization.

"He understands what that means," Lamoriello said. "He does not want to be different than the players in that room and he made a decision to forego all of those bonuses to get this signed, to get his career underway and to become a Devil and just get ready for training camp...He deserves all the credit in this."

If Larsson's deal had included the "A" package of performance bonuses, it potentially would have increased the cap hit for 2011-12 to more than $3 million for 2011-12 because there will be no bonus cushion in the NHL for the seasosn with the CBA set to expire next year. With the Devils trying to squeeze in Larsson and re-sign Zach Parise, getting him to agree to a deal without performance bonuses was a huge coup for Lamoriello.

Lamoriello normally does not discuss contract details of this sort, but made a point of doing so today to give the credit to Larsson.

"It will be one of the first times I've talked like this because I think it's necessary to do so because of the commitment that the player made and also the dialogue that we've had ongoing with the representation of the philosophy of the New Jersey Devils," Lamoriello said. "We do not havy any individual bonuses in any player's contract and never had it including our picks that we've drafted over the years. This was established after a couple of years that I came (to New Jersey). I saw something that in my mind is not team-first philosophy when players have bonuses that if they score goals, they get more money, or if they get more ice time than another player, they get more money.

"I am not one who is a believer in the rookie bonuses that is in the National Hockey League CBA -- the A, Bs and Cs as they're called. Yet, everyone in the league that are drafted certainly in the top areas seem to get them. Nobody (with the Devils) has not gotten them and our conversations have been that this would not be something that's advantagous for us to do and the reason is because every player in our locker room that we have drafted have bought into that philosphy and nobody worries about individual things and only the team and it's a commitment that's made. Getting a young player who his peers who have been drafted below him and above him, for him to understand and agree to that -- and also his representation -- this young man is as mature as he can get at his age."

Lamoriello said "it is impressive" that Larsson made that decision.

"The reason for emphasizing this is that's the decision that the player made to be a part of the Devils and also not to be any different than any other player in that locker room, including some of his teammates that he played with prior to coming here," Lamoriello said.

Lamoriello said Larsson agreed to the deal Thursday night.

'It took a little time to come ot that agreement that this was in the best interest of all parties concerned -- player, team and everything going forward," Lamoriello said.

The Devils had until 5 p.m. today to sign Larsson - the No, 4 overall selection -- to avoid paying his team in the Swedish Elite League a $100,000 fee to sign him before Aug, 15. If they had been unable to sign him by 5 p.m. on Aug. 15, Larsson would have had to honor the final year on his contract in Sweden in 2011-12.

Lamoriello admitted that signing Larsson before the 5 p.m. deadline today was important.

"In my opinion it was for a lot of reasons because of what the discussions have been about," Lamoriello said.

***Lamoriello said he expects all of the team's restricted free agents without arbitration hearings (Zach Parise and Mark Fraser have hearing schediled for Aug, 3 and 4, respectively) to be signed by the end of the day to either their qualifying offers or a "negotiated contract."

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.